In My Tribe

Jim Calhoun mistakenly referred to William & Mary as Wake Forest during his media availability on Wednesday.

Both schools are located in the south, and both begin with the letter "W." That's about where the similarities end, though the Tribe could give UConn a fight tomorrow night.

"They've got eight players back," Calhoun pointed out. "They didn't have a great year (last season), but they beat some people we know, like Northeastern. They expect to have a big year. They've got eight returning guys, five of them seniors."

The Tribe returns its top three scorers from last year's 10-20 team – 6-3 senior guard David Schneider (14.1), 6-7 senior forward Danny Sumner (13.4) and 6-6 sophomore forward Quinn McDowell (9.3). They'll likely throw some matchup zone at the Huskies defensively. On offense, William & Mary will run what Calhoun calls "semi-Princeton, semi-UCLA cuts."

***Calhoun knows that upsets are always lurking at this time of year.

"You're going to see scores up there and say, 'Whoops, how did that happen?'" Calhoun noted. "I don't want us to be a 'how-did-that-happen' team. I don't want to be a 'whoops.'"

*** This will be just the second time that UConn and William & Mary have met on the basketball court. The first was a 51-49 UConn win back on Dec. 28, 1967 at the Hugh S. Greer Field House. Bill Corley led the Huskies with 18 points, Jack Melen added 11 and John (Don't Call Me Coco) Crisp had 10.

The immortal Sandy Fishman went scoreless for UConn, going 0-for-3 from the floor.

***Tonight will mark Gavin Edwards' 90th game as a Husky – and his first start.

Meanwhile, freshman Alex Oriakhi will get the start in his very first UConn game.

***Jamal Coombs-McDaniel on Oriakhi:

"He's been playing real well, one of the best rebounders in the country, in my opinion. He keeps telling me, 'I'll worry about the rebounding, you do the scoring.' It's good to have a guy like that."